[kanaloa]

Caterers, Florists, and Mother-in-laws... Oh My

Things are progressing nicely for Natasha and I, we're getting down into the heavy planning now and starting to book people for the event. Even with the small wedding we're having (less than 200 people), it's "sticker shock" on some "items" needed, especially the caterer and florist. Luckily we've been able to cut corners on other areas... Natasha got an amazing deal on the dress, and she got her boss (who does photography) to be the wedding photographer. Our caterer is also promising us a "inside" deal with the florist they partner with; which will be nice if it holds true, especially since we need tropical foilage/flowers for the "Hawaiian Style Reception."

I don't know if I ever doubted I'd go to Hawaii with Natasha for our honeymoon, and even after considering some local (and cheaper) alternative, we still decided on Hawaii as our honeymoon location. We initially decided the small island of Molokai would be the place. Molokai has a population smaller than most small cities and no buildings above 2 stories; it is THE place to get away from it all.

Last month the idea first hit me that we could combine the honeymoon with a "business" trip for researching the Big Island (our last major island other than Oahu - which we're holding off on for now).

Today Natasha and I discovered that Molokai only had two real hotels worth considering... both at $250 or more a night. Combined with the fact it was such a small island and would cost more to fly there than a larger island, even if we combined it with the business trip, we decided to make an easy change.

We'll do both on the Big Island of Hawaii...business and honeymoon.

So I can say for almost guaranteed certain when I'll be out now next year; as follows:

May 20-27: We'll be prepairing for the wedding. We're getting married May 27, 2006 around 6:30pm EST

May 28-31: Honeymoon on Kona Coast of the Big Island. I think we're going to get a coastal view in a high end resort, about $340 a night (but it's worth it). This is relaxation time... no work, no hikes, no stress.

June 1 -8: Business trip on Big Island of Hawaii. We'll likely move from the Kona Coast to the town of Hilo, which is also the second largest city in the islands at around 47,000 people (still fairly small considering). From there we'll explore, hike, play, and research as normal.

Should be back around June 10th. So all-in-all it's about 2 weeks again next year, around the same time period.

A lot of this will be determined by our sales volume this fall with our business... if we have a good fall, we'll definately stick to this. If the fall/winter is weaker than we'd like, we may curve it a few days.

Just an early FYI and update. It's all starting to sink in now....